The Boys * (1998, David Wenham, Toni Collette) – Classic Movie Review 1491

Debut director Rowan Woods’s 1998 release is a very extreme, slow-moving and repulsive Australian film about a psychopathically violent crook released on parole after serving a sentence for assault. He comes home to a Sydney household of women after a year in jail, resolving to turn back the clock after his mother has taken an aboriginal boyfriend. The family, though, have other ideas.

It’s unconvincing, claustrophobic and stagey, too, making no effort to hide its theatre origins as a play by Gordon Graham in either the direction or Stephen Sewell‘s screenplay. Repellent, hollow and foul-mouthed, it’s worth giving a wide berth to.

There’s nothing at all wrong with the acting from David Wenham as Brett Sprague the crook and Toni Collette as his girlfriend Michelle, but that’s the film’s sole recommendation. That said, it was the proud winner of four 1998 Australian Film Institute awards, including Best Direction, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress (Collette) and Best Supporting Actor (John Polson). And if you look at the DVD cover or the internet, the film does have its admirers.

Also in the cast are John Polson (as Glenn Sprague), Lynette Curran, Anthony Hayes, Jeanette Cronin, Anna Lise Phillips and Pete Smith.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1491

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